1. EVN Disk-Shipping Logistics (JIVE  Stations)
Quick review of Disk-pack flows
Disk receipt evolution
Shipment of Packs per station/session
Shipment costs (reported by stations)
Tactics Options
EVN TOG Dec.2009, Effelsberg (12/iv/09)

2. EVN / VLBA disk-pack flux
EVN stations
session+2
session
for correlation
From here on, just recycled viewgraphs from a couple TOGs ago, in case they are useful
JIVE
pre-position
Bonn
NRAO

3. Pre-session Timeliness
Needs:
Block schedule (& an end to revisions….)
Station on-hand & planned
Load calculation algorithms
Per target corrleator
Recording duty-cycle = 1
Pack size -:= 0.09 TB
Schemes to accelerate (session+2) rule
Avoidance of distributing bad packs

4. Growth in Disk-pack Receipts
Graph of # disk-packs sent from JIVE to each station prior to each session over previous 3 yr.
Red = information from station about cost

5. Growth in mean pack size (Receipts)
Graph of # disk-packs sent from JIVE to each station prior to each session over previous 3 yr.
Red = information from station about cost

6. Disk-pack Shipments from JIVE (Sta/Sess)
3/09
2/09
1/09
3/08
2/08
1/08
3/07
2/07
1/07 Sh 3 8 5 4 - 2 Ur 12 6 11 Mh 1 Hh 10 Ys Tr 15 29 17 13 21 On 23 28 14 16 7 Mc 20 22 Nt 27 25
Jb/Cm 34 24 35 40 18 Wb 9 Ef
tot
147
179
104
138
173
165 47
117
102
Graph of # disk-packs sent from JIVE to each station prior to each session over previous 3 yr.
Red = information from station about cost

7. Shipment Costs per Sta/Sess (in euro)
3/09
2/09
1/09
3/08
2/08
1/08 Sh
196 (3) Ur
238 (3)
490 (12) Mh
69 (2)
59 (1)
147 (5) Hh
355 (4)
300 (3) Ys
330 (11) Tr
712 (15)
977 (29)
450 (11)
693 (17)
592 (13)
1089 (21) On
584 (23)
458 (28)
172 (8)
Entries per station/session = cost in euros reported by station for the number of disk packs sent from JIVE (in parentheses)
A few of these numbers seem to outlie a bit (On 2/09 cheap; Tr 3/09,1/08 expensive
Next step (not yet done) is to make a quick plot to check regressions of cost vs. N_pack – probably not enough data to be terribly meaningful
Avg: On,Ys,Mh ~ per pack
Tr ~35-50 per pack (Tr costs include VAT)
Sh,Ur,Hh ~ per pack (Sh,Hh not including customs)

8. Tactics Options Stations pay both ways (CURRENT)
adv: no cost to JIVE (built into base budget)
disadv: more expensive (netto); stations must find cooperative shipper; different rules from geodesy; no centralized ledger of costs
JIVE pays outgoing, bills stations
adv: cheaper; fewer possibilities for delay; more immediate feedback about costs
disadv: ASTRON FZ does not want to support this; JIVE sees negative cash-flow
Sender pays each way (akin to geodesy)
adv: same as above; no billing stations required
disadv: how does JIVE come out even; not all EVN stations are JIVE partners
Geodesy rules = shipper pays each way, but receiver pays any duties or taxes (sometimes stations try to follow those rules for EVN shipments – mostly Ur & Sh)
Ys recently had a complaint about finding a shipper that would not require cash upon delivery, and it took a while to make sure the shipper they found that didn’t would actually be able to deliver on time.
The biggest operational concern (the only bold-face advantage) is that sometime getting the packs all the way to the station for Ur can take some time, even from when the packs are physically in China – if shipments were prepaid, this situation would most certainly be improved.
Getting FZ on board is perhaps the sore point of option 2 (other stations love this option the most; FZ has told me they wouldn’t support this, but that’s something different from ASTRON saying they wouldn’t – I can see why they wouldn’t want to enter into a billing relationship 3 times a year with all the stations)
Option 3 has us paying without billing – the marginal costs beyond the current approach would have to be made up somehow, but not every EVN station that would benefit from this would be a contributor to JIVE, so unless that’s worked out amongst the stations, the concept of billing stations would seem to recur here as well.